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Well, well, look who’s all grown up and ready to flex his new muscles.

It’s the Canadian Football League Players Association, that former 98-pound weakling of a union that used to get sand kicked in its face every time it tried to establish a beachhead in contract talks.

Bolstered by the prospect of sharing a rich, new TV deal in a league finally finding its financial legs, and beefed up after an off-season session with Don Fehr, the guru of sports labour bosses, the brotherhood of three-down football is united and ready to claim its fair share of Canadian cake.

“We are as strong as we’ve ever been — if not stronger,” union president Mike Morreale said, Thursday. “People see that there’s a lot of positive things going on in the CFL. And they feel the timing is right. They’ve rallied together. They see good things on the horizon.”

Those good things include a rare expansion, several new or dramatically renovated stadiums and a TV contract more than doubling in value, to some $40 million per season.

With the agreement between the CFL and its players expiring in a couple of months, it’s a perfect storm.

Electricity is already in the air: what was supposed to be two days of talks broke off early last week, while another two-day session later this month is off.

Morreale won’t comment on specifics, but leaks suggest the two sides are a football field apart.

The players want to get back to a share of league revenue, which they had from 2006-’09 but gave up in the last CBA.

Reports suggest they’re asking for around 56 percent. If that’s their starting point, logic would suggest they’d settle for closer to a 50-50 split.

Sound familiar?

It’s not the only similarity between this negotiation and the one the NHL and its players went through resulting in a shortened 2012-13 season.

At the helm of the football union nearly two years, Morreale last month reached out to Fehr, who guided hockey players through that battle and baseball players through one lockout and two strikes.

“I got some great tips, some ideas, not only from him but from Mathieu Schneider... just giving me some insight on some of the things that work for them,” Morreale said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to take away the finances and realize we’re all the same. I went down and met with DeMaurice Smith of the NFLPA as well... they’ve gone through similar battles in the public eye.”

The single greatest weapon Fehr stockpiled for his war with the NHL is the way he involved the players.

Morreale will apply that strategy to the CFLPA cause

That sound you hear is a CFL fan base going, “Oh, no.”

“They could assume whatever they wish to assume,” Morreale said. “But the thing for me was simply how to engage players. What I was looking for is tricks of the trade, so to speak, in how to make sure your membership stays united and stays onside.”

That hasn’t been easy over the years.

While other sports have grueling and bitter labour showdowns, the CFL has produced new CBA’s with all the difficulty of a point-after-touchdown, the union politely holding the ball while the owners boot it through the uprights.

But Morreale says interest from the rank-and-file has surprised him, this time. The appetite is strong for a greater share of the spoils.

While the average salary last season hovered around $80,000, a fair share of exploding league revenue would boost that to over six figures.

“It’s a pretty good number,” is as definitive as Morreale would get.

And it’ll be a good fight to get it.

Could the start of the season be threatened?

The union boss says it’d make more sense to kick it off under terms of the old CBA, as long as the two sides are talking.

“The resolve remains to be seen, come crunch time,” Morreale said of his members.

You get the impression the 98-pound weakling won’t be a pushover, this time.

As Advertised in the Winnipeg SUN

CFLPA ready to put up a good fight in new CBA talks with league

Well, well, look who’s all grown up and ready to flex his new muscles.

It’s the Canadian Football League Players Association, that former 98-pound weakling of a union that used to get sand kicked in its face every time it tried to establish a beachhead in contract talks.

Bolstered by the prospect of sharing a rich, new TV deal in a league finally finding its financial legs, and beefed up after an off-season session with Don Fehr, the guru of sports labour bosses, the brotherhood of three-down football is united and ready to claim its fair share of Canadian cake.

“We are as strong as we’ve ever been — if not stronger,” union president Mike Morreale said, Thursday. “People see that there’s a lot of positive things going on in the CFL. And they feel the timing is right. They’ve rallied together. They see good things on the horizon.”

Those good things include a rare expansion, several new or dramatically renovated stadiums and a TV contract more than doubling in